Ginger Pierce
September 21, 2016 4:05 PM
Roomates! I have drama! by Ginger Pierce
Ginger was glad to be back to school. She loved her family, and she was sad was going to miss the birth of Saul and Elly's baby, due any day now, but this particular summer had been difficult and she was happy to put it behind her. She didn't like to think she was a typical teenager, and liked even less to think her family was subject to typical points of contention between parents and teenagers, but if Mom had brought up Jake one more time....She entered the room she shared with Jemima and Lauren and backflopped onto her bed, staring up at the ceiling for a good long handful of seconds before declaring, "We should have stars on our ceiling this year. Maybe even nebulas, like they had at the dance. That looked awesome."
Sitting up, she looked toward her friends. Lauren was on her wagon, so they always arrived together, and Jemima was from the Midwest so hers often arrived within a short while of the Pacific wagon. Ginger had swung by the kitchen to request a delivery of cookies for their decorating party, so by the time she'd walked back and done the jig, they were all present, including the cookies.
"So my mom hates Jake," she revealed. It had been a recurring theme throughout the summer, but when she'd written to her friends, she'd mostly just condensed the events to a offhand remark that her mom was being unreasonable again and spent most of her ink telling them about actually interesting things she'd been doing like having a speaking part in some of the Faire skits or writing checks because Mom thought she was old enough now to authorize some of the family's expenses. Mom still needed to co-sign, as Ginger was legally still a minor, but it was still a pretty awesome grown-up thing to get to do.
That Mom was birthing kittens about a seventeen year old boyfriend when she trusted Ginger with literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in the California Pierce accounts was astounding to the Teppenpaw. "She hasn't even met him! Why can't she just be happy that we're happy together?"
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Roomates! I have drama!
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Lauren Song
September 23, 2016 1:24 AM
OMG by Lauren Song
Lauren was so happy to be back at Sonora. It had been a rough summer at home this year. Isaac had been away at soccer camp for two weeks which was followed by basketball camp for another week. Maia had tennis practice and a bunch of other lessons and tutors to keep her busy and productive during the vacation months. Lauren had absolutely nothing to do. She had read a lot of books, written a lot of letters to her best friends and even to Arne, and had listened to her parents argue when Dad came on his bi-annual visit, this time with Grandpa in tow.Somewhere during the last school year her dad's mom had passed away in Korea. Her mom had gone to the funeral with Maia and Isaac, but Lauren didn't even hear the news until the week she got back from school. She hadn't been close to her grandma, but it was still sad to lose a family member. It was the excuse Dad gave to Mom when he showed up with Grandpa expecting them to take care of him for the month they were both at home. It was tough living with her grandpa from Korea for a month and trying to entertain him. He was really ambitious and liked to spoil her and her siblings, but he also liked to try and teach them what was right and wrong, most of which Lauren didn't understand and didn't appreciate at fifteen.
Mom and Dad had argued a lot about what to do about Grandpa, usually in heated voices in their bedroom in the evenings. Lauren didn't know if anything ever got solved, but she could feel the tension between them just by being in the same room. A month later Dad went back to Korea with Grandpa and Mom was momentarily depressed as she always was when her husband had to go again. It was hard having two parents in two different countries, but Lauren couldn't imagine being separated like that from her hypothetical husband. Even though Lauren's parents talked a lot over Skype and other avenues of communication, it definitely wasn't the same only seeing each other twice a year.
Even though she'd written to her roommates about it a little, she'd stuck to more positive things. So on the wagon ride back to school, Lauren told Ginger all of the details. It was going to be another long conversation with Jemima to update her too. Lauren was looking forward to leaving the summer behind and listening to her roommates. They had problems of their own that were definitely more interesting than hers. Boys. The only boy paying any attention to her was Arne, and it wasn't like he liked her. At the moment Lauren didn't have anyone to crush on, but she liked hearing all the relationship dramas going on with her friends.
When she entered the room, she made a beeline for her bed. "How I missed you," she said, flopping onto it right before Ginger made her declaration. "I agree," Lauren said and sat up clutching her pillow to her chest. "Glow-in-the-dark stars would look so pretty. You know, maybe we can even try using the same charms that they used for the dance, now that we're old enough." It brought the unwelcome reminder that they had to take their CATS this year, and Lauren groaned and flopped backwards on her bed again.
At Ginger's news, Lauren sat up again. "Aw, that's awful. I think she would probably hate anyone you date, honestly. I think that's just how mom's are." Lauren had absolutely no experience to back herself up, but it sounded about right. "Jake is such a nice guy. I think she would like him a lot more if she met him. Besides, if she can trust you with money I feel like she should be able to trust you with a boyfriend."
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OMG
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Jemima Wolseithcrafte
October 08, 2016 1:02 AM
Dun-dun-duuuuuh by Jemima Wolseithcrafte
“Are you talking to your bed or us?” Jemima asked, as Lauren declared ‘I missed you’ whilst face down in her pillows. It definitely seemed like the former. The beds at Sonora were super comfy, so she couldn’t say she blamed her, although her own bed at home was good too and she, personally, had missed her friends more.“A space theme sounds cool. No freaky alien people walking around our room though,” Jemima giggled. Actually the thought of the… people(?) they had had at the ball peering over them whilst they slept was more creepy than funny. She wished she hadn’t said that.
“What?” she gasped at Ginger’s news. “Why do they hate him? Jake’s such a nice guy.” She didn’t quite agree with Lauren that mum’s were just like that about guys. Her own mum seemed fine with Owen. Not to say there weren’t other family members making it awkward... “Theodore’s been weird this summer. I mean, differently weird to usual. He seems to have launched into protective big brother mode. He kept telling me not to let Owen boss me around or stuff like that. I mean… It’s OWEN. Have you ever met anyone less bossy? And this coming from my older brother, who did guess what for the first however many years of our lives? Families always suck over who you date.
“Does Jake’s family like you?” she asked. Not that she could imagine anyone not liking Ginger, but this kind of stuff usually went both ways. As she’d said… families always sucked. “I… I don’t think Owen’s mother dislikes me or anything. But every time she talks to me I feel like… like she’s evaluating me or something?” It wasn’t unusual to have to mind one’s ps and qs with adults, or to feel like they were judging you, but the feeling was definitely more intense when it was Owen’s mum doing it.
OOC - permission for Owen’s mum’s attitude obtained from his author
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Jemima Wolseithcrafte
Dun-dun-duuuuuh
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